1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an arrangement for guiding a steel strip during its passage through a continuous strip treatment plant equipped with a series of treatment stations, wherein the travel direction and/or travel track of the strip can be adjusted as desired and/or the strip is turned over as desired from the bottom side to the top side and vice versa for making it possible to carry out a visual inspection of the strip.
2. Description of the Related Art
A known treatment plant for steel strip includes, for example, stations for a continuous sequence of treatment steps, such as degreasing, annealing, galvanizing, cold finishing, varnishing, checking, winding, etc. In such a hot galvanizing and varnishing plant, an example of which is shown in FIG. 1, the so-called "good side" of the strip is turned over from the bottom side to the top side, in order to make it accessible for a check by a visual inspection, wherein the bottom side of the strip emerging from the galvanizing bath initially continues to be the bottom side of the strip in the continuous travel direction of the strip. During the cold finishing step, for example, toughening of the top side of the strip and during the final coiling step, the bottom side of the strip must then be turned over to the top side of the strip for a continuous visual inspection.
For this purpose, the strip is guided vertically upwardly into a steel structure underneath the high bay roof and in longitudinal direction over the plant components. The strip is at the end of the bay guided vertically downwardly and is then returned horizontally against the strip travel direction of the entry portion of the plant for further treatment and for coiling. The strip is conveyed closely underneath the roof of the bay which is approximately 40 meters high through the exit group with run-out looping tower and further through the varnishing unit. This requires a long, stable and high steel structure with support rollers for guiding the strip and a crane underneath the strip for handling the plant components arranged below the strip. The high bay required for this purpose is very long, for example, 150 meters. This results in a further disadvantage because the long horizontal stretch of the strip guidance located at a high location may lead to strip running problems and damage to the strip on the support rollers.